Ceramics by Cathy Gee

This is my first post - the building of the site has taken awhile as its been written from the ground up!  Not by me, I might add :)

This is where I plan to talk about what I'm working on currently, my successes and my frustrations and other stuff as well – in a very casual and perhaps lazy fashion.

Lately I've been experimenting with different built-in hanging methods for my pendants....and by that I mean making the opening for the cord, or necklace, or chain, virtually invisible.  Up until now I've been punching holes in the tops of the pendants and using leather or silk cords - this works ok - it suits some of the images on the pendants, but I wanted to do something a little finer - where the hanging solution wasn't obvious and therefore didn't conflict or detract from the image/piece.

So, i've come up with two solutions, both of which I stupidly didn't photograph while being built or  green (air-dry) - but I plan to remedy that in the future.  As in, photograph and post my processes. 

I currently fire at a studio outside of my house, but do all of my building at home - so there is the problem of transporting my stuff to and from the studio (1910 Danforth) and also the frustration with turn-around time.  I share kiln-loads with other artists – as most of my pieces are quite small – I'd be working for weeks and weeks and weeks to try and fill a smaller kiln on my own – kilns, if you're being responsible, are always completely filled as much as possible before being fired up – for energy and environmental reasons. For anyone that doesnt know here's a REALLY basic breakdown of the process: A piece is built or thrown on a wheel, it then dries a bit (to a leather hardness, more or less.) Its then cleaned by hand (all of the surface finishing of the clay itself). It's then exposed to the air and allowed to dry (this is now in a state called greenware.) This is where I generally do my painting using underglaze – the piece then gets fired for the first time – its allowed to cool, then gets glazed again – its then fired for a second time – thats a very basic breakdown without getting into kiln temperatures, different clays and glazes or anthing else (I don't understand the half of it - click here for more detailed explanation)...but as you can see, its a long process, anybody who works with clay knows that this is a medium where there is no instant gratification! :)

I plan to buy eventually, once I've saved up enough, a table top kiln for home – that would allow me to fire something as large as an 11inch dinner plate, but would be great for small jewellry pieces. Because the interior of a table top kiln is so small, the heating up and cooling down process is ALOT quicker – so the information i need re: glazes etc would be pretty much instantaneous.

Right now I'm in the process of re-shooting all of my work in a new lightbox – pieces will be posted shortly. I will also be shooting and posting the newest pieces as I've described above.

I'm extremely happy with some of the newer pieces and am anxious to get them back from the studio (some will be bisqued this week, and some will be coming out of the glaze fire).....